Horizontal bungee jumping

Black Book - Trailer

Black Book - Trailer

Black Book - Trailer Holland 1944 - The final years of the Second World War find the beautiful singer Rachel Stein (Carice Van Houten) taking refuge with the Tsjempkema family in rural Holland. Once a popular and wealthy singer, Rachel has been waiting out the war like many Jews in Europe, separated from her family and a moment away from being caught by the Gestapo. Directed by: Paul Verhoeven Starring: Carice Van Houten, Sebastian Koch, Thom Hoffman

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iPod shuffle -- now with color

iPod shuffle -- now with color

Filed under: Portable Audio

Well hello new iPod shuffles. Breaking free from their bleak battleship-grey origins, the $79 iPod shuffle now hits in your choice of pink, green, blue, and even a new tasty orange flavor. Still 1GB, still 12 hours of battery, and yes... available with free laser engraving just in time for Valentines Day.

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Microsoft demoes Vista... on an iMac

Microsoft demoes Vista... on an iMac

Filed under: Desktops

Maybe it really is all peace and love n' stuff over there in Europe; Espen Pettersen "Vista-sjef" for Microsoft Norway was caught giving a demo on TV of Vista's fantabulous new features... on an iMac. We don't speak Norwegian so we can't tell you whether he's extolling the true virtues of Apple's consumer desktop centerpiece, or whether some prankster back at HQ sent him out to demo with the wrong machine -- but whatever reason why Microsoft runs Vista on iMacs, we're most curious to know whether Jobs & Co. is one of today's unnamed Vista developer / hardware partners

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The iPhone You Should Lust Over

The iPhone You Should Lust Over

I will once again admit that I was googoo gaagaa for the iPhone when it first came out but then I learned of all the dirty little secrets that little apple from Silicon Valley held I started to raise my nose at anyone who mentioned it. Sure it has the full screen touchpad and all that jazz but it lacks 3G capability and with a launch on that orange guy’s (AT&T/Cingular) network it should have been a no brainer. But what do I see over the horizon coming from the ginormous Communist state?

The Meizu M8, which has a striking resemblance to the iPhone, claims to sport a 3.3 inch 720×480 display on a itty bitty 57×105x11.5 mm white casing packing both GSM and the Chinese TD-SCDMA 3G radio, Bluetooth, a 3 megapixel camera, and an ARM11 CPU capable of recording video at 30fps at full resolution. Whether it’s real or not is yet to be seen but you can bet your bottom dollar a Chinese cloan will be released long before the iPhone makes its debut in Asia.

iPhone with 3G [iPhonect via Digg]

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Verizon passed up Apple iPhone deal

Verizon passed up Apple iPhone deal

While Cingular (er, AT&T, but you know what we mean) couldn't seem prouder of its iPhone exclusivity, apparently Apple's first choice was Verizon, but the two companies couldn't agree on a deal that worked for both companies. "We said no." Said Jim Gerace, a VZW VP. "We have nothing bad to say about the Apple iPhone. We just couldn't reach a deal that was mutually beneficial." Talks began as far back as two years ago, but Apple's demands were steep. They also give us an idea of what exactly is behind the Apple / Cingular agreement: Apple wanted a percentage of monthly service fees, control over distribution that would limit iPhone sales to Apple and Verizon stores, and even some control over service and support for iPhone customers. "They would have been stepping in between us and our customers to the point where we would have almost had to take a back seat ... on hardware and service support," say Gerace. Cingular doesn't quite see it that way, so perhaps Apple changed its conditions a bit when it started courting Cingy. Says Mark Siegel, a Cingular spokesman, "I don't want to leave the impression that these (iPhone) customers are not ours. They are." Mark also mentioned that Cingular would field calls related to wireless service, and that "We think this is a win for Apple, and it is a win for Cingular." Whether consumers -- who would have presumably had a fair shot at an EV-DO iPhone with Verizon as a service provider -- will win in the end is yet to be seen.

 

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Interesting ... Adobe Releases PDF to the World

Adobe Releases PDF to the World

In 1993 Adobe published the full specifications for its Portable Document Format, or PDF, granting royalty free license to those who chose to build PDF tools into their applications, and helping PDF to become a de-facto standard for document creation.

Tomorrow they will announce that they are relinquishing control over the PDF format to to AIIM, the Enterprise Content Management Association, for the purpose of publication by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

One of the primary reasons for this appears to be hesitation by many governments to embrace proprietary formats, including PDF. With this change, Adobe hopes to sell many more copies of Acrobat, the primary software used to create and edit PDFs.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Adobe

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Dutch ... Black Book - Trailer

Black Book - Trailer

Black Book - Trailer Holland 1944 - The final years of the Second World War find the beautiful singer Rachel Stein (Carice Van Houten) taking refuge with the Tsjempkema family in rural Holland. Once a popular and wealthy singer, Rachel has been waiting out the war like many Jews in Europe, separated from her family and a moment away from being caught by the Gestapo. Directed by: Paul Verhoeven Starring: Carice Van Houten, Sebastian Koch, Thom Hoffman

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Google, YouTube infiltrate top brand ranks

Google, YouTube infiltrate top brand ranks

Results from a survey today revealed that Google has once again bested Apple for the top spot in global brand ranking. Additionally, YouTube soared to the no. 3 spot behind Apple with Wikipedia following right behind. The survey measures brand impact according to brandchannel readers, and makes no distinction between good or bad "impact." Apple not...

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Getting worse .... ScoopLive Turns Us All into Paparazzi

ScoopLive Turns Us All into Paparazzi

According to Matthieu Stefani, Co-Founder of ScoopLive, “Every event has its witnesses.” And with camera phones being so prevalent, every witness now has a chance to make some real money on what they’ve captured.

The Web has exploded with amateur videos of everything from the Saddam Hussein hanging to Michael Richards hanging himself - all filmed by “citizen journalists.” Up until now, though, cashing in on these stories has been hard to do.

A Marketplace for Monetizing Scoops

ScoopLive just announced that it was out of beta in the Tech Crunch forums as one of a handful of entrants into the on-line marketplace for monetizing scoops, whose competitors already include Scoopt.com and SpyMedia.com.

The solution doesn’t make as much sense for professional photojournalists that use well-established photo and press agencies. It makes far more sense for the amateur market that may only sell one photo or video, but it could be the one picture of Paris Hilton that nets them $50,000.

ScoopLive was initially launched in the European market with approximately 150 buyers in 15 countries. The site has attracted 2,500 reporters in 60 countries and has already been successful in brokering sales including a cover image for Voici, the French equivalent of People Magazine in the U.S. (it’s the photo of two famous French actors kissing each other at a night club, but the real story is above that photo).

Join, Upload, Sell

Users of ScoopLive can create a free account and begin to upload their media, tagging it so that it can be found by buyers (my camera phone video of fans rushing the field after OSU stomped Michigan may not make me rich).

If it’s a scoop, the media will be auctioned off to buyers and sold with a 30-day exclusivity clause. If it’s just an interesting item, it will go into ScoopLive’s image bank and be sold at a fixed rate. Sellers retain the copyrights to their media and can earn up to 85% of the final sale to a buyer.

Popular and Profitable

Today the average citizen journalist may think uploading a video to YouTube is a big deal. But in the near future sites like ScoopLive will allow authors to not only make their content popular, but profitable as well.

Wil Schroter is a contributor to TechCrunch as well as the founder and CEO of GoBigNetwork.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

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Netherlands joins Norway, pursues Apple

Netherlands joins Norway, pursues Apple

The Netherlands has joined Norway, Sweden, and Finland alongside France and Germany in an effort to hold Apple accountable for locking customers into using its portable media players and iTunes software when purchasing audio tracks via its iTunes Music Store. The Dutch Consumer Ombudsman lodged complaints with the Dutch anti-trust agency as well as...

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The FanBoiz - Smoke The Wii

Testing BlogJet

I have installed an interesting application - BlogJet. It's a cool Windows client for my blog tool (as well as for other tools). Get your copy here: http://blogjet.com

"Computers are incredibly fast, accurate and stupid; humans are incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant; together they are powerful beyond imagination." -- Albert Einstein

Apple Special Event on February 20 (Apple Recon)

Apple Special Event on February 20 (Apple Recon)

 

Apple Special Event on February 20 — We have just gotten an anonymous tip from a source that indicates that Apple is planning a special event on February 20 to introduce Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard), iLife '07 and iWork '07 as well as updated Mac Pros. Mac Pros will be available immediately …

Source: Apple Recon
Author: Applerecon
Link: http://applerecon.com/2007/01/23/apple-special-event…

Techmeme permalink

Updated with BlogJet 

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Steve Jobs Introduces the iPhone on Mad TV

A Year of My Life: 10,000 photos from my point of view

No not mine, but if you like Italy great video to watch, lot's of Tuscany, Rome, Florence, eating, drinking and enjoying. Made by: http://www.youtube.com/TheaterOfMemory

Windows on the Mac changes everything (David Kirkpatrick/Fortune)

Windows on the Mac changes everything (David Kirkpatrick/Fortune)

Windows on the Mac changes everything  —  The kind of software sold by the formidable Parallels is transforming computing and challenging Steve Jobs, says Fortune's David Kirkpatrick.  —  NEW YORK (Fortune) — The lines between the Mac OS and Windows are starting to blur.

Source:   Fortune
Author:   David Kirkpatrick
Link:   http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/19/technology…

Techmeme permalink

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Apple reportedly (still) readying LED-backlit MacBook Pro

They may not have made an appearance at Macworld, but Apple's rumored LED-backlit MacBook Pros look to be slightly less of a rumor today, with AppleInsider reporting that "faithful industry sources" have confirmed the switch to the brighter, less power-hungry technology. Supposedly, Apple's 15-inch MacBook Pro will be the first out of the gate, getting the LED transplant sometime in second quarter of this year, with the other models in the line presumably to follow soon thereafter, although exactly soon remains to be seen. Not surprisingly, Apple appears to be timing the release of the new-and-improved MacBook Pro to coincide with the spring launch of Leopard, letting them show off the OS's snazzy new features in the best possible light.

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From Engadget: Apple planning to charge Tiger users for Boot Camp?

Apple planning to charge Tiger users for Boot Camp?

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

It was perhaps one of the most significant events the PC industry has seen in the last decade: Apple opening up its hardware to Windows operating systems through its proprietary Boot Camp software. Not only did it allow Mac owners running Intel-powered machines to dual boot XP at will, it did so completely gratis (well, save for the cost of a Windows license). Unfortunately, the honeymoon may soon be over for Tiger users accustomed to the free boot loader: according to a report on MacScoop, Steve and friends plan to begin charging about $30 for the software once OS X Leopard is released and Boot Camp leaves beta for the greener pastures of commercial. For those Macheads planning to upgrade to Leopard, this wouldn't be an issue, of course -- the new OS will offer Boot Camp as one of its standard features. Still, if you're planning on keeping the old Tiger and your draft-N router around for awhile longer, it sounds like there's a good chance you'll need to squirrel away about $32 for the future: $30 for Boot Camp, and two bucks for the privilege of unlocking your wireless card's dormant 802.11n functionality.

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Stupid Diggnation Fight

Steve Ballmer laughs off the iPhone, deems it "most expensive" in the marketplace

Steve Ballmer laughs off the iPhone, deems it "most expensive" in the marketplace

Filed under: Cellphones

We'll be the first to give props to Steve Ballmer for accomplishing what he has at Microsoft, and we will agree that the iPhone is one expensive (and probably overpriced) little machine, but during a recent interview where he was questioned about the iPhone, he proceeded to not only compare Apple's forthcoming handset with the "$99 Motorola Q," but insisted that the iPhone was "by far the most expensive phone in the marketplace," which couldn't be farther from the truth. Sure, most of the long, long list of mobile phones priced above (sometimes well above) the $500 price point aren't exactly mainstream handsets, but as the luxury phone market continues to bloom, Apple is looking to take advantage of those willing to shell out half a grand to have the hottest gizmo out. Additionally, Steve did mention that the iPhone was absolutely "not suitable for business purposes" due to its complete lack of a keyboard, but considering its half-hearted attempt at Push mail and lack of 3G, we doubt Mr. Jobs is out fighting for the corporate market just yet anyway. Nevertheless, it's always entertaining to see one head honcho completely mock another company's product, so click on through for the YouTube'd interview.

[Via Digg]

Continue reading Steve Ballmer laughs off the iPhone, deems it "most expensive" in the marketplace

 

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And this evening in a storm ....

A typical day in the Netherlands

Some rain, a lot of traphic and the country comes to a stop ....

 

Breaking: Apple To Open Up FairPlay DRM To Accessory Manufacturers

Breaking: Apple To Open Up FairPlay DRM To Accessory Manufacturers

Whoa Apple! First you were all “Get out of my shit!” with your proprietary iTunes DRM, now you’re all “Come into my humble abode.” What gives? Rumor ’round the mill is that Apple will be making an announcement this week and that the announcement will be the opening up of the FairPlay DRM system to select manufacturers.

The move could not only help manufacturers out by allowing iTMS-songs to play over wireless hi-fi systems and such, but could also settle the score with Cisco over the iPhone trademark dispute. Cisco recently said they’d allow Apple to use the iPhone name if in turn, Apple let them have access to its FairPlay DRM system. A good move for Apple? Totally. Opening up your DRM system, even in the slightest way, is a bold move that will be well received by all.

Report: Apple to open up FairPlay DRM to accessory makers [iLounge]

Update: We have direct confirmation with Cisco that they have not specified any particular terms of agreement on usage of the iPhone name. Thus, Cisco is not currently asking Apple for a peek inside its box of DRM treats. Sorry for the confusion!

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News? No as old as Metusalem ...., but it works :-).

Amsterdam Airport Urinals Have Flies Etched Into the Bowls

Amsterdam Airport urinals have flies etched into the bowls which "saves us a lot of money on cleaning. If a man sees a fly, he aims at it".

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iPhone In Wonderful 3-D!

iPhone In Wonderful 3-D!

Behold the power of home computing! This is a sweet 3-D rendering of the iPhone done by a gentleman who took a bunch of images of the iPhone off Apple’s website and threw them together. The result? A sweet animated GIF reminiscent of 1996 and Angelfire websites.

iPhone 3-D Official Site

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Macworld vs. CES: Macworld emerges as victor-analysts (Reuters)

Macworld vs. CES: Macworld emerges as victor-analysts (Reuters)

Reuters - The company making the biggest splash at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week was not even there: Apple Computer Inc., which

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Office 2008 Mac Screenshots

Office 2008 Mac Screenshots

A collection of screenshots of the upcoming 2008 release of Office for Mac.

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Shrek the Third - Trailer 1

Shrek the Third - Trailer 1 When Shrek married Fiona, the last thing he had in mind was becoming the next King. But when Shrek’s father-in-law, King Harold, suddenly croaks, that is exactly what he faces. Unless Shrek (with the help of his trusted companions Donkey and Puss In Boots) can find a suitable King for Far Far Away, the ogre could be stuck with the job. Directed by: Chris Miller, Raman Hui Starring: Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Antonio Banderas, Rupert Everett

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The Astronaut Farmer - Trailer 1

The Astronaut Farmer - Trailer 1 From the time he was a child, Charles Farmer (BILLY BOB THORNTON) had only one goal: to be an astronaut. Earning his degree in aerospace engineering and joining the Air Force as a pilot, Farmer was a natural for NASA’s astronaut training program and was well on his way when a family situation forced him to drop out and return home - effectively ending his career. Directed by: Michael Polish Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Virginia Madsen, Bruce Dern, Tim Blake Nelson

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Children of Men - Clip

Children of Men - Clip Envisages a world one generation from now that has fallen into anarchy on the heels of an infertility defect in the population. The world’s youngest citizen has just died at 18, and humankind is facing the likelihood of its own extinction. Directed by: Alfonso Cuaron Starring: Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Charlie Hunnam, Michael Caine

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New AirPort Extreme has built in NAS

The new Airport Extreme (802.11n) base station has built in NAS (Network attached storage) capabilities! All you need to do is hook up an external HD to the USB ports in the back and you have pain-free Mac & PC file sharing.

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Cisco sues Apple over iPhone trademark infringement

Cisco today saiid it has filed a lawsuit against Apple seeking to prevent the company from using the iPhone trademark, reports MarketWatch...

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Steve Jobs on Nightline 1/10/07

Analyst: CES fails to threaten iPod

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas is producing many new product announcements, none of which pose a material competitive threat to Apple's iPod and iTunes, according to Piper Jaffray senior analyst Gene Munster. "As has been the case for the last several years of CES, we did not see ... Read more

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Michael Carrington from Techcrunch about the new iPhone

Once again, Apple CEO Steve Jobs wowed the crowds like no one else can. In his 9 am keynote at MacWorld in San Francisco this morning, Jobs announced the new iPhone cell phone. From the description in appears to be a game changing device, and the public markets seem to agree. As of the time of this writing, Apple stock is up over 7% for the day. Competitor Research in Motion (Blackberry) is down over 6%, wiping $2 billion dollars in market cap off the table. Palm, maker of the Treo, is also down, nearly 6%.

The iPhone is an impressive, and expensive, device. It comes in 4 GB and 8 GB models and costs $499 and $599, respectively. It includes a 3.5 inch touchscreen with a virtual keyboard, a 2 megapixel camera, is WIFI enabled and runs OSX. Cingular is the carrier. The desktop-like interface and user experience looks to be a killer. This might actually take the mobile email revolution another full step forward from what Blackberry has done. Standard web sites can be viewed via the Safari browser (and soon, I’m sure, Firefox). And there are a number of nice touches as well, including a motion sensor that rotates photos when you turn the phone, and voicemails displayed visually that you can click on and listen to. As we all expect from Apple, this is a seriously buttoned up device.

The iPod functionality is almost a side benefit, and with the limited storage compared to the high end iPods, serious music aficionados will still want to carry their 80 GB iPods as well.

Apple also made other announcements today, including the availability of Apple TV (formerly iTV), a $299 living room device that streams iTunes content to the television. And iTunes appears to be soldiering on, with 2 billion songs and 1.3 million movies sold.

The biggest letdown is the fact that the iPhone won’t be available until June 2007 in the U.S. They have so much horsepower and untested software packed into this tiny device that the first version will almost certainly have problems - overheating, bugs, etc. That won’t stop millions from buying it as soon as it is available. And it won’t stop me, either.

Apple Announces The iPhone

Text from MacRumors, pictures from Engadget. 

In a lengthy speech that included an appearance by Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Yahoo chief Jerry Yang, Apple at long last announced the much-anticipated "iPhone."

Hardware Features
- 3.5" Widescreen touch-sensitive display
- 11.6 mm thin
- 2 megapixel camera
- proximity sensor, accelerometer, and ambient light sensors
- GSM/EDGE
- WiFI
- Bluetooth
- Battery Life: 16 hours audio, 5 hour

Software Features
- Runs version of OSX. "Full desktop-class applications"
- conference call support with up to 3 participants
- multiple SMS session support (iChat-like interface)
- Safari: first fully useable HTML browser on a phone
- "coolest photo management app ever"
- Widget support
- Yahoo IMAP mail
- Google Maps (with satellite image) integration

The phone will be offered exclusively through Cingular in the US in June, and will come to Europe in Q4 2007, and Asia in 2008. A 4 GB model will be offered for $499 with a 2 year contract, and an 8 GB model will fetch $599 with similar contract provisions. The phone can be purchased through Cingular's website or via the Apple Store.